Private developers may hold key to sports complex

Groups pushing for a new indoor sporting stadium in Mildura South say they will consider trying to lure private developers to get the project moving.

The Mildura council says it will look again for enough land for a stadium and two sporting ovals, after a planning panel recommended against its 16th Street site, because of the compulsory acquisitions it would need.

Paul Freckleton from the sporting groups says it is the latest setback for an urgently-needed project that has been promised by the council for 20 years.

He says the council should do a feasibility study on the stadium project so it can then be pitched to private developers.

"We need a group of people in there prepared to get this project up and running," he said.

"At the moment it seems like we've got a group of councillors not prepared to push.

"This has been on the table since the early '90s and every council we have come across has said it'll take 10 years to get up and running.

"The council have to support those private people who go in to build a complex like this. Unfortunately the last stadium that was built, the council didn't support it that much, they restricted their usage of that facility and they went broke because of it."

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